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Drifting along with the SciSchmooze

Storm Ciarán flooding, Dorset, England - Courtesy Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

Dear science fans,

Storm Ciarán bashed England and left many thousands without power across Western Europe last week. 

The Panama Canal is restricting shipping since a drought left the region without enough fresh water to operate the locks for normal ship traffic. Some container ships had to off-load enough containers to meet weight restrictions. The container


SciSchmoozing There & Back

LIGO Quantum Squeeze Apparatus - Credit: Georgia Mansell/LIGO Hanford Observatory

Dear science fan,

The above Quantum Squeeze Apparatus made me laugh. It looks like a far more complex version of one of my goofy grammar school inventions that i assembled from bottles, cans, defunct car parts, light bulbs, wires, and batteries. My inventions didn’t ever do anything - but i always hoped they would lead to some major discovery. The above apparatus actually does something - so they say - that allows greater sensitivity in detecting gravity waves at higher frequencies and at lower frequencies - but not both at the same time. If you believe you can get me to understan


Perusing the Universe with the SciSchmooze

Bob Siederer
OCT 23
Mosaic of 42 galaxies from the Siena Galaxy Atlas (Credit:CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA/J. Moustakas)

Hello again, Fans of Science!

There are lots of things around us that we take for granted, yet are scientific marvels. Take, for instance, glass. We look through it. It shelters us from the elements in windows. We drink from vessels made from it. But what is it, really? Is it a solid? Liquid? The answer to both may be yes, as glass is a bit of a scientific mystery! This article will get you thinking!

Shaking with the SciSchmooze

San Francisco 18 April 1906

Dear SciSchmoozers,

A 6.1 earthquake topped off my birthday this month in Oaxaca, Mexico (and abruptly terminated a huge outdoor rock concert). Since the quake was located 108 kilometers below the terrain, there was almost no damage - except to nerves.

The Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 was a 6.9 magnitude event. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 was a 7.9 magnitude event. Because the magnitude scale is logarithmic, the San Francisco quake was 10 times “bigger” than the Loma Prieta event. In terms of energy, however, the San Francisco quake released over 30 times the energy of the 1989 quake.

¿Is our Bay Area threatened by another 7.9 quake? Well, yes, but not for a while. The g


Mooning the Sun with the SciSchmooze

10.9.23

Hello SciSchmoozers,

Well it has been a crazy week and I am going to have to just tease you with some various links that have provided some distraction from the news and life. It has been a challenging year and most people seem to want to get on to 2024. I love it when someone says they can’t wait until something completely out of there control happens! It’s not as if a new year will make any difference!!

These are pretty crazy times with people be


Down to Earth with the SciSchmooze

Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and friends

Dear reader,
I’ve assembled some ideas and information you might enjoy.


SPACE

On Tuesday, go outside at 1938 hrs (that’s nerd-notation for 7:38 PM) to watch the ISS make a 6-minute pass over the Bay Area. (NW horizon to directly overhead (86°) to SE horizon)

Astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin returned to Earth from


To Bennu and Back with the SciSchmooze

September 24, 2023

BOB SIEDERER

The recovery capsule and parachute in the Utah desert this morning. Credit Keegan Barber/NASA

Hello again Science Fans!

Just before 7:52 AM (PDT) this morning, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned the sample recovery capsule (SRC) containing material from the asteroid Bennu to a desert area in Utah. This is a remarkable achievement. First, they had to get to Bennu, which involved some complicated orbital mechanics. Then they had to orbit the asteroid, the smallest space object ever orbited by a satellite. Next, they had to successfully obtain a sample of the asteroid’s surface, deposit it in a container, and close the lid. Tha


Thinking about Science?

The SciSchmooze 9.18.23

Herb Masters

SCIENCE THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH, THEN THINK —

Hello Curious Friends,

Let’s get this started… It seems that AI is everywhere. Some see it as a threat and others see it as a promise… Earlier there the hot item was the smart phone. How about a "smart toilet" that analyzes your urine stream and fecal deposits while taking a picture of your anus for good measure? There is so much to learn at the 

Not An Existentialized SciSchmooze!

Hello Fans of Science and Reason,

Well it was about here that the day shifted direction heavily. So now I’m picking it up, rather late in the day, and in a cheap and poor imitation of the tone and style of Stephen Colbert introducing his deeply missed “Meanwhile” I can only say that my twice monthly carefully “existentialized”, finely honed tour de week of science, art, and the purpose of the universe will only be a shadow and links of itself!


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